President's Day Special: Top 5 Personal Presidential Vehicles

The history of the presidential limo is well known and over time there have been quite a few memorable ones, like the Lincoln Continental that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in, or "The Beast" Cadillac limo President Barack Obama rides around in today. The history of personal presidential cars is somewhat less-clear, but as it turns out some presidents have a pretty good taste in cars. President Bill Clinton owned a 1967 Ford Mustang Convertible before he was in office, and President Obama owned a Chrysler 300C before trading it in for a Ford Escape Hybrid during his 2008 campaign. While cool cars (OK, the Escape isn't cool) there are presidents who've had cooler. In honor of Presidents Day, the following list is the top five personal presidential cars of all time.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is famous for many things - he was the president that got us out of the Great Depression, the president who lead us though most of World War II, and he was also the nation's first handicapped president. Roosevelt suffered from polio as a child and never was able to use his legs again. That didn't mean he didn't like to drive and according to AllPar, this 1931 Plymouth PA Phaeton is the car he used to do it in. As he didn't have use of his legs, F.D.R. had the PA fitted with hand controls built in New Jersey. According to AllPar, when President Roosevelt was at the Little White House in Georgia, he used to take the drop top PA out in the countryside, where he'd regularly elude the Secret Service as he bombed around the area's two-track roads.

According to Forbes, one of President Richard Nixon's most prized possessions was his 1950 Oldsmobile 98. The 1950 Oldsmobile 98 was a classic post-war sedan that was powered by Oldsmobile's legendary 302 cu. in. (5.0-liter) "Rocket" V-8, giving the car quite a lot of get-up-and-go. Nixon's 1950 88 would become most famous when the then-vice president candidate mentioned it in his 1952 "Checkers" speech, which he made to dispute claims that he accepted illegal campaign contributions. Talk about foreshadowing.

President John F. Kennedy was clearly a man of taste. Never was that more apparent than in his choice of car. Before his election, Kennedy became the proud owner of a 1961 Thunderbird convertible. The third generation T-Bird sported a soft top and featured power steering, power brakes, power windows, power locks, and even a swing-away steering wheel that would allow easier in-and egress from the car. According to Forbes, J.F.K. 's Thunderbird was featured prominently in his 1961 inauguration parade.

Like President George W. Bush two-some-odd decades later, one of President Ronald Reagan's favorite hobbies was working on his Santa Barbara, Calif. ranch. Working on a ranch, you need a utilitarian vehicle, and it's hard to get more back-to-basics than an ex-Army M38-A1 Jeep. The M38-A1 was the military's successor to the World War II MB and GPW Jeeps. Based on the civilian CJ-3, the M38-A1 featured a beefed-up frame, and a 134.2 cu. in. (2.2-liter) I-4. Forbes reports that President Reagan's Jeep was a given to him as a gift from his wife Nancy in the late '70s.

President Reagan makes this list twice because he owned two very cool cars. Number one on our list of coolest personal presidential vehicles is President Reagan's 1978 Subaru Brat. Short for Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter, the Brat was a 67-hp F-4 powered all-wheel drive mini-pickup with two jump seats mounted in the bed. Rumor has it that during his campaign for president, Reagan had to have his Brat registered under an employee's name as to avoid starting a scandal over owning a Japanese car. According to Subaru, Reagan owned the vehicle up until 1998, when he donated the well-loved vehicle to charity. After his death in 2004 Subaru stepped forward with Reagan's former National Security Advisor Richard Allen and restored the Brat to its former glory. It can still be seen at Reagan's ranch to this day.